PARIS: It’s no secret that politics infuses fashion and some critics are interpreting the mania for blue at Paris Fashion Week as a statement of “the blues” about the perceived rise of nationalism across Europe and America. Here are some highlights from Sunday’s star-filled Paris shows including how a nine-year-old fashionista turned heads at Valentino.

Blue is colour of season

While its exact symbolism is up for debate, one thing is certain: blue is the colour of the season. A host of designers have all used the symbolically-charged hue in their fall-winter collections. Those include Britain’s Phoebe Philo at Celine, Italy’s Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior, Japan’s Yoshiyuki Miyamae at Issey Miyake, Georgia’s David Koma at Mugler and Lebanon’s Elie Saab.On the immigration front, France’s culture minister told The Associated Press that the Parisian fashion industry which relies heavily on foreign talent is under threat owing to the rise of nationalism.

Valentino ravishes in thoughtful collection

What do you get if you combine Victorian-era styles with those of Italian postmodern design? Designer Pierpaolo Piccioli gave us a pretty good idea in his gentle and thoughtful Valentino collection on Sunday that took both for inspiration. His high 19th-century collars fused with the geometry of the Memphis Group, a design and architecture group founded in Milan that created furniture, fabrics and objects in the 1980s. Silhouettes were softly geometric and hung loosely from the shoulder. Colours were also gentle raspberry, sage green, turquoise, sheeny black with white. A stylish flash of Cadmium yellow blossomed on a standout silken dress. An ethnic, multicoloured patchwork coat was handled with subtlety while long, soft pleats gently lined some of the most beautiful gowns seen this season.

Honey, I shrunk the Celine models

Designer Phoebe Philo seemed to shrink the models in her inventive, proportion-play of a Celine show. A gargantuan, white knee-length necklace accompanied a three-foot canary yellow handbag. While, a cape made of oversize sleeves followed a six-foot emerald green fringed blanket, alongside huge blown-up prints.

But the collection, despite its dramatic and intellectual musing, remained highly wearable. It’s a rare feat. Oversize tailored menswear jackets made an appearance, fusing into beautifully gathered gowns with Empire-line busts. One of the best looks in navy, with this Napoleon-era silhouette, was given a sublime contemporary twist with exaggeratedly wide, long flappy shirt-cuffs.

Nina Ricci goes west

It was the Wild West but not as we know it. Guillaume Henry saddled up his fashion horse and headed to America for Nina Ricci’s collection late on Saturday. The lauded designer tamed the styles of the American cowgirl for the chic Parisian audience with a beautifully soft colour palette, with lashings of pink and peach. Skirts and coats with hip cutouts evoked cowboy chaps.

Prints with cowboy and rodeo motifs speckled with stars followed buttoned-up shirts, belts with exaggerated silver buckles, checks and hanging pendants with cowboy- style silver clasps. A standout long coat-pant look toyed cleverly with the rodeo style. Feminine soft turquoise replaced blue denim, and the big Western leather collar was given a feminine twist, flopping softly and delicately.

John Galliano’s fashion history

The golden age of couture with a quirky twist. That was on the menu for Bill Gaytten, who designs for the house of John Galliano, and took guests down the annals of fashion history. It made for a richly reverential show on Sunday night that celebrated post-War styles and played with off-kilter proportion.

Black ostrich feather hats, popular in that era were reimagined in exaggerated width. Coats that resembled the influential 1947 Bar Jacket, invented by Christian Dior where John Galliano worked for 15 years, were given a tweak with bulbous lower part and military buttons. And a dull purple gown that had the satin sheen of a classic thirties Hollywood glamour puss was twinned with baggy pants.—AP

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017